Date
01/23/2014
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The student rocket-car challenge
In the same week that the head of CBI accused schools of producing ‘exam robots’, children from local schools were invited to Freescale’s East Kilbride technology centre to get hands on experience of building their own rocket cars. This is part of Freescale’s ongoing support of Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) activities and aligned with the Technology Enrichment Matrix event being held on site.
To help inspire the children, Richard Noble OBE was in attendance. Richard drove the Thrust 2 car which achieved the World Land Speed record in 1983 hitting a speed of 633.468mph (1019km/h). An incredible achievement which, with Richard as team director and Andy Green behind the wheel, the team subsequently beat in 1997 with the Thrust SSC achieving 763.035 mph (1221 km/h) breaking through the sound barrier to achieve Mach 1.02.
Richard made a presentation to the children showing a number of videos featuring land speed record challenges which were truly inspirational and he also described the challenge of encouraging young people to undertake careers in engineering. In the 1960s and 1970s children were inspired by the Apollo projects heading off to the moon but since then there has not been a similar level of adventure to inspire.
Richard spent time talking to the children as they conducted their rocket builds and provided great encouragement during the launch of the rocket cars which was won by the St Andrews and St Brides school based in East Kilbride.
Freescale’s Technical Enrichment Matrix (TEM) events are intended to provide a platform for sharing the technical achievements within Freescale facilities around the world. The UK TEM was hosted in East Kilbride, with participation from Germany and the Czech Republic.
The EKB TEM also incorporated tours of the Test Development Lab and the global premiere of an ESD training video produced by the graduates who joined EKB in 2013. "Business leaders want more focus from schools on creativity, curiosity, tenacity, self-confidence and good manners, as well as high academic standards", said John Cridland, CBI chief last week. "This event achieved that."
Quotes from the attending schools:
St Ninians
“The staff and pupils of St Ninians had an absolutely fantastic day with you yesterday and returned to class for period 7 Physics class just in time to let all their S4 class mates know about their amazing experience. I think their video clip of their rocket has just about gone viral within the school! To me the day totally encapsulated what STEM is trying to create and encourage, for which all your staff deserve a great deal of credit. They all had a very down to earth, approachable, friendly approach with the school pupils, representing scientists in a very different light from the stereotypes. It was also excellent to see the great number of female staff. A couple of our pupils who had decided they wanted to be lawyers have come away wanting to look into different types of engineering.”
Strathaven Academy
“Many thanks for allowing Strathaven Academy to participate in the rocket car challenge. The day was fantastic from start to finish and we enjoyed the day immensely. The pupils are still raving about Richard and his quests as well as the challenge itself. The day has created quite a buzz for our pupils (myself included) and will be talked about for a while to come I suspect.”
Duncanrig Secondary
“I would like to thank you on behalf of the pupils at Duncanrig Secondary. They had a great time, they really enjoyed the practical activity and were grateful for the support and enthusiasm from Freescale staff (especially Sam ;-). They thought the talk given by Richard Nobel OBE was very informative and inspirational.
